Hare-abian Nights
Hare-abian Nights is a 1959 Merrie Melodies short directed by Ken Harris. Title The title is a pun on Arabian Nights. Plot In an Arabian palace, a band Timbuk Two Plus 3 is playing "Sweet Georgia Brown" trying to entertain the sultan, but the performance ends with the floor being dropped out from under them, sending the band into a crocodile pit below. Next, an Elvis-like musician scared by the fate of Timbuk Two performs "Hound Camel", before meeting the same fate as Timbuk Two. Following that, Bugs, intending to travel to Perth Amboy but having missed a left turn at Des Moines, ends up in front of other prospective performers and is ordered to entertain the sultan. Assigned the role of "Teller of Tales", Bugs proceeds to tell his tale of how he ended up in the palace. Bugs recounts his problems with the bull he met there while trying to find the Coachella Valley, and Bugs' outsmarting the bull with a hidden anvil. The sultan is prepared to press the button to send Bugs into the pit, but then Bugs recounts his experiences with Rudolph the monster, when Bugs impersonated a hairdresser to outsmart Rudolph. Bugs also recounts his encounter with Yosemite Sam in the Sahara Desert, referring to Sam as "the stupidest character of them all", while recounting Sam's unsuccessful attempts to enter a desert fort. At this point, while Bugs is chuckling at Yosemite Sam's misfortunes, the sultan, who turns out to be none other than Yosemite Sam himself, tries to press the button to drop Bugs, only to find that Bugs has shut off the mechanism with the use of a master switch, frustrating Sam. When Yosemite Sam tries to find out what is wrong, Bugs switches the master switch, dropping Sam into the crocodile pit, from which he escapes, but not before one of the crocodiles also escapes, sending Sam running off. Bugs, now dressed with turbans covering each ear, describes Sam's act as a "don't call us, we'll call you" act, along with some other remarks. Availability * DVD - Looney Tunes Parodies Collection Censorship When this cartoon aired on ABC's The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show, the excerpt from "Water, Water Every Hare", in which beautician Bugs gives to Gossamer/Rudolph a dynamite-roller "permanenenent," was completely omitted.http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-h.aspx Notes * This cartoon is one of only two shorts in the Golden Age of American animation starring Yosemite Sam not directed by Friz Freleng, (although sequences from a Freleng cartoon are used in this short) the other short being "Dumb Patrol" (1964), which was instead directed by Gerry Chiniquy of the Friz Freleng unit. * This is the only Yosemite Sam cartoon from the classic era which had no involvement at all from the Friz Freleng unit, and the only Yosemite Sam cartoon from the classic era which the Chuck Jones team worked on, even though Chuck Jones himself never directed any Yosemite Sam cartoons until "From Hare to Eternity" (1996), which was ironically the final cartoon he ever directed during his lifetime, done as a dedication to Friz Freleng who died a year before that cartoon's release. * Barring an episode of The Bugs Bunny Show, this is the only cartoon that Ken Harris ever directed.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0364938/ * It recycles footage from "Bully For Bugs", "Water, Water Every Hare", and "Sahara Hare". * The plot of this short would later be reused in Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales, where Yosemite Sam would once again be sultan, and also reuses footage from previous Looney Tunes shorts, this time featuring not just Bugs Bunny, but also other characters as well. Gallery Hare-abian_noghts.jpg|Title Card (Before Remastering) Hare-abian_Nights_title_card.png|Title Card (Boomerang UK Version) vlcsnap-2020-02-10-17h24m42s115.png vlcsnap-2020-02-10-17h24m49s033.png vlcsnap-2020-02-10-17h23m50s484.png 250px-Hare-Abian Nights performance.png vlcsnap-2020-02-10-17h24m01s148.png vlcsnap-2020-02-10-17h24m13s204.png vlcsnap-2020-02-10-17h25m09s149.png vlcsnap-2020-02-10-17h25m17s417.png vlcsnap-2020-02-10-17h25m26s894.png Hare-abianNightsLC.jpg|Lobby Card TV Title Cards Screenshot 20191126-205548.jpg References External Link * "Hare-Abian Nights" at SuperCartoons.net Category:1959 Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts Category:Bugs Bunny Cartoons Category:Shorts Category:Yosemite Sam Cartoons Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng Category:Cartoons directed by Chuck Jones Category:Cartoons written by Michael Maltese Category:Cartoons with music by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with layouts by Samuel Armstrong Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Philip DeGuard Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons produced by John W. Burton Category:Cartoons that reuse footage from earlier cartoons